Earlier this week the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) issued a directive that no medical marijuana dispensaries were allowed to take in new marijuana extract inventory until licenses are issued to extract processors. There are currently no licenses, and the process to apply for a license doesn’t even open until the beginning of next month. The OHA directive literally put people out of business overnight. My Facebook feed was completely full of sad stories about companies laying off employees and people scrambling to figure out what they were going to do.

I’m very happy to say that OHA has announced that it will allow provisional registration to Oregon extract companies that submit complete applications starting April 1. So extract companies can’t start processing again today, but at least there is only a short wait. Below is an explanation of the change via the Oregon Cannabis Association:

The Oregon Health Authority has announced that beginning April 1, cannabis processors who submit completed applications for licensing through the OHA will be given a provisional registration that allows them to operate under OMMA rules until their licenses are approved. This means that extractors who follow the OHA’s rules and submit completed applications on April 1 will be able to resume operations, and that dispensaries will be allowed to accept transfers of extracts from registered processors.

While Florida still considers any person caught holding a little marijuana a low-level criminal, a number of municipalities across the state have made it their mission in recent months to do away with the penalties associated with minor possession. The most recent is the City of Tampa, where Mayor Bob Buckhorn has signed a measure into law that will prevent those people busted with small amounts of weed from being thrown in jail.

On Monday, the mayor put his signature a popular ordinance that will give the Tampa Police Department the freedom to hand out citations to petty pot offenders instead of running them through the criminal justice system. The new law comes just a week after the city council put their seal of approval on the measure in a vote of 5 to 1, suggesting that any amount of marijuana under 20 grams should be handled with a simple fine.

A Minnesota-based medical marijuana company says Google is blocking its attempts to advertise online.

Vireo, the parent company of Minnesota Medical Solutions, tried to take out a series of online ads in New York, where it operates four clinics and is one of several companies chosen by that state to grow and manufacture medical cannabis. Each time, Google rejected the ads, citing its policy against promoting “dangerous products or services.”

On Monday, the company expanded its online advertising efforts to include the two Minnesota clinics operated by Minnesota Medical Solutions. Enrollment in Minnesota’s medical cannabis program remains relatively low — 1,133 patients since legalization last July. But Vireo announced that it would also attempt to place “Minnesota-targeted Google ads to make it easier for Minnesota patients to learn about using our medicines.”